Peter McDonald, Director of the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute at the Australian National University, has said that specific immigration policies are shaping the nation’s size.

Answering points raised in the McCrindle report – which said Australia’s population is set to hit 22 million before the end of the year- Professor McDonald talked about how migration to Australia is bringing about colossal social and demographic change.

“Migration to Australia has changed. You know people think about migrants coming to Australia as those coming on the classic government permanent residents program. That’s the skilled migration, family reunion, refugees,” he said.

“Only 30 per cent of the population increase through migration comes through those sources, the rest of it is from people coming in on temporary visas to Australia and the biggest group is the overseas students and overseas students coming in.

“We’re desperately trying to keep them coming at the moment in case they get frightened away because it is a big export earner for Australia.”

Professor McDonald says as the population ages, the birth rate will fall, and Australia’s population growth in 20 years will entirely rely on migration.

You can find out more about migrating to Australia at our Down Under Live show – coming to Birmingham on the 19th & 20th September.

Australia has been voted the best place to be during the global economic crisis, in a business survey.

One in five international business people have voted for Australia to be the best place to live in during the economic crisis as a survey released by Servcorp International Business.

The Servcorp survey asked 7,500 international business people all being in 24 nations to vote which countries they believe are surviving the crisis the best.

Australia was indeed far in front by 20% of all international business people choosing it as the country that is surviving overall the best.

Taine Moufarrige, Servcorp Executive Director says: “In my experience working with international businesses around the world, especially during the last six months, I’ve noticed how relatively unaffected Australian businesses and the Australian business person’s attitude by the economic downturn.

Over 71% of Australian business people believe we are the “lucky country” and it’s interesting to see that the rest of the world agrees.”

WESTERN Areas NL has successfully raised $35.35 million through it’s institutional share placement.

Seven million shares were issued at a discount of 3.6 per cent at $5.05 each.

The placement was significantly oversubscribed, with strong demand from both domestic and international institutions, most of which were existing shareholders.

Western Areas’ managing director Julian Hanna said: “The success of this placement will support Western Areas’ rapidly expanding nickel production and help underpin the Company’s growth strategy to achieve its goal to become Australia’s second largest and lowest cost nickel miner.”

Western Areas shares last traded down 44 cents, or 8.4 per cent, at $4.80.